The Latest: Sub owner ordered held in woman's disappearance

Updated 10:14 am, Saturday, August 12, 2017

Photo: Hougaard Niels, AP

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FILE - This is a April 30 2008 file photo of submarine owner Peter Madsen . Denmark's navy says that Madsen's privately built submarine that had been feared missing in Danish waters has been found and the crew is safe. The navy says that the 40-ton, nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long) submarine with at least two people on board had been "found sailing" south of Copenhagen. (Niels Hougaard /Ritzau. File via AP) less

FILE - This is a April 30 2008 file photo of submarine owner Peter Madsen . Denmark's navy says that Madsen's privately built submarine that had been feared missing in Danish waters has been found and the ... more

Photo: Hougaard Niels, AP

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FILE - This is a April 30 2008 file photo of submarine owner Peter Madsenstands inside the vessel . Denmark's navy says that Madsen's privately built submarine that had been feared missing in Danish waters has been found and the crew is safe. The navy says that the 40-ton, nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long) submarine with at least two people on board had been "found sailing" south of Copenhagen. (Niels Hougaard /Ritzau. File via AP) less

FILE - This is a April 30 2008 file photo of submarine owner Peter Madsenstands inside the vessel . Denmark's navy says that Madsen's privately built submarine that had been feared missing in Danish waters ... more

Photo: Hougaard Niels, AP

The Latest: Sub owner ordered held in woman's disappearance

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Latest on a private submarine that sank off Denmark: (all times local):

5 p.m.

A Danish court has ordered the owner of an amateur-built submarine to be held in pre-trial detention for 24 days while police investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who had been on the ship.

Peter Madsen was arrested Friday on preliminary manslaughter charges after his 40-ton, nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long) submarine sank off Denmark's eastern coast. He has denied responsibility for the fate of 30-year-old Kim Wall, saying she had disembarked before his vessel went down.

Judge Kari Soerensen announced the ruling Saturday after a two-hour custody hearing held behind closed doors.

Madsen's defense lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, said her client maintains he is innocent.

The family of a journalist who has been missing since she joined the inventor of an amateur-built submarine on a voyage in Denmark says she freelanced for prestigious publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian and Vice Magazine.

Kim Wall's family said in statement emailed to The Associated Press on Saturday, "It is with great dismay that we received the news that Kim went missing during an assignment in Denmark."

Her family says the 30-year-old Sweden-born journalist lives in New York and Peking and had studied at the Sorbonne university in Paris and the London School of Economics.

She also received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York in 2013.

The submarine's Danish inventor, Peter Madsen, is being held on suspicion of manslaughter in Wall's disappearance.

The submarine sank on Friday, but Madsen says Wall disembarked on Thursday night.

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11:15 a.m.

A boater who helped search a private submarine that sank off Denmark says he saw inventor Peter Madsen Kristian standing in the vessel's tower while it was still afloat.

Kristian Isbak tells The Associated Press he had responded to the Navy's call to help locate the submarine on Friday when he spotted Madsen.

Isbak says the inventor "then climbed down inside the submarine and there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink."

While the UC3 Nautilus was going down, Isbak says "came up again, stayed in the tower until water came into it as the submarine started sinking."

Isbak says he then saw Madsen swim over to another private boat.

Madsen's actions are being scrutinized because he is being detained in the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who had been onboard his submarine Thursday night.

Madsen says he dropped her off before the sinking.

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10:55 a.m.

A judge is set to decide if the owner of an amateur-built submarine should be held in custody during an investigation into whether he is responsible for the disappearance of a Swedish woman who had been onboard his submarine that sank off Denmark's east coast.